It's official, Rapid Metro in 6 months

Come next April and you can hop on to India's first privately funded, managed and run intra-city Metro rail.

An answer to the Millennium City's commuting woes, Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon (RMG) is all set to roll out on schedule either on March 31 or April 2 next year.

However, only five out of six Metro stations on the 6.1-km route would be ready by then.

The station at Gateway Tower (Shankar Chowk)would take around a month longer due to land acquisition issues.

Commissioner of railways (safety) is likely to visit the spot in December for issuing a safety clearance certificate.

On Thursday, one of the three silver and blue coaches was lifted and placed on the rail tracks.

Produced at Siemens' China plant, each train with three coaches costs R30 crore. One train can accommodate nearly 800 passengers.

On the occasion, Sanjiv Rai, managing director, Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon Limited (RMGL), said system integration of the RMG network would be completed in December by when five of the six stations would be ready. RMGL is a special purpose vehicle company (SPV) of IL&FS Rail Limited and DLF Metro Limited.

"We are scheduled to launch the commercial commencement of Metro service as per set schedule either on March 31 or April 2. The only exception would be Gateway Tower (Shankar Chowk) station, the land for which we have received only recently. Work on this location would not be completed by March. Therefore, the trains would not halt on this station for some time after the launch," Rai said.

The RMG rail network would connect to Delhi Metro's Sikanderpur station through a 90-metre long skywalk.

The rail service, meant to reduce the traffic rush of office-goers, will meander through DLF City (Phase 2 and 3) including the commercial hub of Cyber City.